Alumni of The Daily Princetonian share their memories of Larry DuPraz, the beloved ink-stained, cigar-chomping curmudgeon whose critical eye refined six decades of journalism at the paper.

Wednesday, January 10, 2007

'He scared me shitless'

I was the only girl on the staff of the ‘Prince’in 1970 when I first met Larry and, I have to admit, he scared me shitless. I’d never met an adult who was so gruff and foul-mouthed and who made me feel like such a clumsy idiot out there at the presses.

But I held my quakes inside and learned as fast as I could until one day, amazingly, I found I could proofread hot lead type upside-down and backwards, just as he did. I also found I could read Larry DuPraz better and better and began to appreciate that he held us to the highest standards of deadline journalism, and that underneath his gruffness was an incredible commitment to the ‘Prince’ and to us as growing adults. For his part, I know Larry registered my discomfort and that of others and brought his firehouse language in line a bit – or maybe we just got used to it!

In the end, we girls could feel the love, and we got those jolly, enthusiastic and prideful embraces from Larry at Reunions and we, in turn, told him of our accomplishments and his part in them. This was a fabulous man – holding together our journalists’ clan both during Princeton and after.